Some pets come into our lives at exactly the right moment. When we’re facing challenges that have us stressed to the core, these animals have a way of making everything all right. One woman from California knew this all too well.

After doctors delivered her some bad news, she turned to a lucky animal to guide her through the most trying time of her life. So imagine her horror when she got an alarming phone call about her beloved new pet that would make the diagnosis an afterthought…

Kameroun Mares is a 26-year-old woman from southern California, who loves to surround herself with animals. In the photograph below she might be smiling and happy, but in reality, her life beforehand hadn’t been so sunny.

Kameroun Mares

In the early-2010s, Kameroun was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that affects the white blood cells. Dealing with the illness was hard and took a serious toll on Kameroun, as you can imagine.

As a result, Kameroun became depressed as she fought day after day for survival, but she wasn’t going to give up — she began her chemotherapy. Luckily, her body was responding well to the treatment plan, even if it didn’t feel that way.

Kameroun Mares / Facebook

Finishing up her last few rounds of chemotherapy, she started wondering what she was going to do once her days in the hospital were limited. She needed something to look forward to and dream about. Bringing a new companion into her life was the perfect thing.

Kameroun Mares / Facebook

You see, Kameroun wanted to adopt a dog, a husky to be specific. She thought the new member of the family would make the perfect companion when she went home to Florida and it would help her gradually return to the land of the living and remember what really mattered.

She named him Semper Fidelis, which translates from Latin to “always faithful,” but called him Semper for short. What better name could you give to an animal known as man’s best friend?

She taught him basic commands like “sit” and “lay down,” but she also taught him more advanced commands like “go home” or “Where’s your home?” Semper was helping Kameroun heal from all of her pain, but this happiness was short lived.

Kameroun Mares via ABC

Unfortunately, cancer wasn’t done with her yet. She had to go back across the country. She wanted to take Semper with her, but for multiple reasons, she wasn’t able to. She needed to figure out what she was going to do.

Kameroun Mares / Facebook

Going through cancer treatment is brutal and having a support network is critical. Luckily for Kameroun, her roommate in Florida offered to take care of her beloved pooch in her absence. She agreed and got on a plane, leaving Semper behind.

Arbili / Reddit

But things were about to go from bad to worse. Kameroun received a call she was never expecting. It was her roommate telling her that Semper was missing, and she didn’t know where he was. Kameroun was heartbroken and worried sick about her beloved pup.

In a panic, she made her way to the airport to go back home and begin the desperate search. She began looking everywhere around the area for him. She checked local shelters, vets, and the police, but no one knew where the dog was.

Brokenhearted, time was finally up and she had no choice but to return to her treatments unsure if she’d ever find her canine friend. But if Kameroun was one thing, she was a fighter and she wasn’t about to give up!

“For a year, I continued searching… posting up fliers via pet sites, calling 15 vet places around where I used to live over there about him, calling the humane societies about him, shelters. [I] posted info about him on Facebook, lost dog forums, and pages and groups.”

But the phone never rang. “Every day I waited for a phone call about someone finding him… His microchip is registered to me…yet I received nothing. I was worried sick about him, and missed him dearly,” she said.

Then, just when she thought all hope was lost, she had an idea. It was an unusual one but she was out of options. She decided to get help from a pet detective.

Flipping through the yellow pages, she settled on private investigator, Ana Campos, who specialized in lost persons in southern Florida. Campos agreed to help Kameroun search for her beloved pet, realizing that she was Kameroun and Semper’s last hope to ever reunite.

Ana Campos / Facebook

New help brought new ideas for ways to bring her boy back home. Campos encouraged Kameroun to revisit her lifetime registration with the AKC Reunite program which helps ensure pets are registered to their owners in the event that they are separated. In May of 2017, when Kameroun went to the Humane Society to check Semper’s microchip, she discovered something truly strange…

Oddly, A year prior, a woman registered her name on Semper’s chip. Apparently, the microchip company failed to check his chip before registering a new owner. This gave Campos the lead that she needed to move forward with the case.

That’s when Campos made an appalling discovery. Someone had listed Semper on Craigslist to purchase for $200. This is why he never showed up in the shelters, vets, or police stations, and this is why no one ever contacted Kameroun’s desperate pleas.

Craigslist

But it got so much worse than that. Campos discovered that Kamroun’s ex-roommate was the one who placed Semper on Craigslist and lied about what had happened to him. She had stolen him from her and kept it a secret, even though she knew how badly Kameroun wanted Semper back.

Netflix

It was a gut-wrenching discovery, but Campos wasn’t going to quit. She made several phone calls and after explaining the story of the cancer patient and her beloved stolen dog, a special meeting was arranged.

Ana Campos / Facebook

Confused, Kameroun arrived in a random parking lot as instructed by her investigator. A car she’d never seen before pulled up and when the door opened she couldn’t believe who came sprinting out — Semper!

Ana Campos / Facebook

After their overwhelming reunion, Semper and Kameroun went home to California and she is finally in remission. He’s back with his family and is settling into his new home all the while taking walks around his new neighborhood and being a local celebrity.

If you really feel like getting emotional, you should definitely watch Kameroun and Semper’s reunion in this video below!